The farmer and I have spent many hours pondering how to go about the rest of my Nuffield study. It seems like for the first time ever I am going to need a PLAN!
One of the things that made me giggle in USA was the management talk and the Gettysburg leadership training. When you are a self employed farmer you don't bother much with the latest inspirational talks or 'in' words and sayings. There is no office politics or team work, we just get on with it or the ship sinks! At Gettysburg we were told we needed to Innovate, Adapt and Overcome. We even had Abraham Lincoln turn up to reinforce the message!
Maybe Higher Fingle farm needs to be stop being so cynical and then we may find we are more successful. So in this more open frame of mind We have tried to get some Key words outlining Organic Ducks Great Adventure.
INSPIRE,
This is easy after talking to lots of new entrants (including my favourite one from Sunderland)and asking the question why? the most common answer was 'I want to farm.' Now that is a pretty farmer type answer but when you pull it about a bit the main reason was some real desire to work on the land. This desire was sometimes (as in my case) inspired when very young, but often in the teenage years when choosing their options at school. So on this basis I need to look at HOW to INSPIRE people to go into the farming industry.
New entrant, Dora 7 want's to be a 'Horse Farmer'
ENABLE
Not so easy this one, the educating and training youngsters with the skills required is fairly straightforward. We have got some great land based colleges in the UK, but we seem to have lost sight of practical skills training so checking out the new Diplomas and the Fresh Start Academies may show me some interesting things. The hard one is enabling a new entrant to farm on their own. Currently I am excited to find out about CSA's, Equity share farming and countries where land use is more tightly controlled.
SUCCEED
This is the one we have yet to sort out! If we want new entrants then we need them to succeed and survive when the going gets tough (because it always will!) You can argue that the financial support is there in the form of tax credits and other social security help. From our experience the practical and mentoring support is missing in an industry that by it's nature is isolating and lonely. Thinking about organised support networks we thought about Farm Crisis Network, but why wait fo a crisis, maybe this is the mentoring and practical advice that we could have done with at times.
The other main theme here is what is success? I think we need to look at aiming for successful retirement which is how, in most industries much time is spent planning for.
Mick Ayres Builder Retired at 75
Not so easy this one, the educating and training youngsters with the skills required is fairly straightforward. We have got some great land based colleges in the UK, but we seem to have lost sight of practical skills training so checking out the new Diplomas and the Fresh Start Academies may show me some interesting things. The hard one is enabling a new entrant to farm on their own. Currently I am excited to find out about CSA's, Equity share farming and countries where land use is more tightly controlled.
SUCCEED
This is the one we have yet to sort out! If we want new entrants then we need them to succeed and survive when the going gets tough (because it always will!) You can argue that the financial support is there in the form of tax credits and other social security help. From our experience the practical and mentoring support is missing in an industry that by it's nature is isolating and lonely. Thinking about organised support networks we thought about Farm Crisis Network, but why wait fo a crisis, maybe this is the mentoring and practical advice that we could have done with at times.
The other main theme here is what is success? I think we need to look at aiming for successful retirement which is how, in most industries much time is spent planning for.
Mick Ayres Builder Retired at 75
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